I am probably bringing up an issue that has been discussed at length, however, I still don't understand it. We are having A LOT of difficulty understanding Following vs. Email Notifications in Jive 5 and the different behaviors of each. (I am not even talking about Track in Communications, so let's keep that out of this thread.)

We are an e-mail-centric organization and our employees want to receive emails for followed content. I understand that when you join a group, you're automatically following it and it is your Preferences that will determine how you receive this information (i.e., in your activity stream or via email). So, if you have your Preferences set to receive email notifications for all People, places and content you're following, why do you not receive blog posts via email (unless you are following that person)? And, at what point do you have to specifically click "Receive email notifications" for a group or a piece of content?

DO NOT select that "All activity" button!!! It will generate an email notification for every single person, place, or piece of content you follow.

Short answer: If your users are very email-centric, I would suggest they turn on email notifications upon joining a group -- I personally don't favor that option (and it can generate a lot of email messages if the group sees a lot of activity), but it's pretty easy to explain to a user and should more or less cover their needs.

Longer answer: feel free to crib from this FAQ we put together for users (and suggestions / comments are always welcome). Links will not work since they go to our Jive instance.

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What is the difference between Join, Follow, Track in Communications and Receive Email Notifications?

Each person, place (group / space) and piece of content in [Jive instance] features a number of different options for figuring out what it going on in [Jive instance]. You may be wondering why there are so many different ways of doing this; this is how the system accommodates all types of users with all types of working styles and preferences.

For example, perhaps you don't like receiving email notifications and prefer to check a news feed in [Jive instance]. On the other hand, perhaps you prefer not to log into [Jive instance] and just want a quick email notifying you about something important. Maybe you don't want regular emails but would like / have been asked to keep tabs on a particular document or discussion or blog post. Maybe you want to know what is going on in a lot of groups. Or, maybe all you really want is to know when your local executives post communications. You can see how we each may encounter different scenarios every day -- [Jive instance] accommodates each of these situations.

Here are the four different functions that we can tweak to get the amount of information we want.

Follow

Track in Communications

Receive Email Notifications

Join (for Groups only)

And here's a quick summary of the differences.

Function

What happens?

Do I get an email notification with new activity?

Follow

You will see activity in your What Matters: Activity feed. You are also able to access the What Matters: Activity feed from the [Jive instance] mobile app (which you can install by going to your profile > Edit preferences > Mobile). If you are following a space, the space admin(s) will be able to see who is following the space.

No

Join (Groups only)

Joining a group will automatically activate the Follow option (although you can Follow an Open or Members Only group without Joining it). When you Join a Group, you will appear under the Members tab and the Group Owner / Administrator will be able to send you and all other Group members an email message (if / when necessary).

No

Track in Communications

You will see activity in your What Matters: Communications feed. You are also able to access the What Matters: Communications feed from the [Jive instance] mobile app.

No

Receive Email Notifications

Every time the content (discussion, document, blog post) is updated / edited / commented upon, you will receive an email notification. To accommodate user preferences, there are multiple "levels" of notifications that can be turned on / off for -- 1) a group / space 2) a group blog (if applicable) 3) a specific piece of content like a blog post or a document or a discussion 4) a person. For further details about how to turn on / off email notifications, please see Email Notifications.

Yes

For further information about the What Matters feeds, check the What Matters Notification Matrix.

We follow much the same approach as Chris. What I have found is that even when people completely understand, they will still use the wrong language when describing a problem. They will say Follow when what they really mean is that they are set to receive emails. I'm looking forward to the more straightforward methods in 6.0. At least I think I am....